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Extreme Manoeuvres...

After a small hiccup with the power supply for the P.A. system, rapidly rectified, it was time for the context and flight line briefing, our own Chris Dickens being responsible for the flight line organisation; fortunately he had an unstressful, the competitors were very well behaved and responsible. The contest is divided into two classes, advanced and unlimited, there were five entries in the advanced and six in the unlimited, this allowed an unhurried competition with time for ‘comfort’ breaks and demonstrations. Each of the classes has a fixed schedule for round one, which gives a chance for the judges and spectators to assess the standard of flying of individuals flyers. Unfortunately local man Brian Cooper had suffered an ignition module failure in the engine of his Hanger Nine Extra and was unable to compete, this left just Lee Waples to fly the flag for the O.G’s and he was understandably nervous in his round one flying, it was his first major competition.

Models were mostly ARTF’s, or professionally built, one exception was Martin Bell with his very attractive home designed and built ‘Stiletto’; smaller than average, it was powered by a J’EN56 and obviously less costly than some of the entries, it performed very well and more than held it’s own against the opposition. Capiche and Synergy ARTF models were the most popular models (most competitors brought along two models), YS the most favoured of glo motors and Desert Aircraft being preferred by a number of the spark enthusiasts.

After the fixed schedule round Martin Bell took a healthy lead in the Advanced, but Thomas David and Luke Shaw were neck and neck for the unlimited contest. Round two and three were for the true freestyle aerobatics, the contestants choosing their own programme which is then judged on ‘Content and Innovation’, ‘Execution and Precision’, ‘Presentation Entertainment and Variety’. No doubt with the latter criteria in mind a number of the contestants opted to fly their sequence to music, this certainly adds to the enjoyment by the spectators, but can be problematic for the pilot. If you have a general musical background the manoeuvres do not correlate to the music, but if you have very positive non-synchronised tracks the model must carry out the manoeuvres precisely in time with the beat of the music and such items as flick rolls coinciding with a climax. Miss the beat and you have egg n your face.

Luke Shaw flew a magical, with music, second round, the model not only flew in sympathy with the music style, but his precise timing must have impressed the judges, he was a worthy winner of the unlimited class, outscoring his nearest rival by over 50 points.

Between the rounds we were royally entertained by demonstrations of the World 3D Masters helicopter champion, Duncan Osbourn, who not only carried out some sparkling, death defying sequences but, with commentaries by Russ Deacon, explained each of the manoeuvres and how they were performed. An equivalent demo by a fixed wing aeroplane would also be informative. Brian Cooper ave an exhibition of high speed flying with a borrowed Weston ‘Magnum’, he claimed that it was not as fast as his own model, but it certainly impressed the spectators.

One thing did strike this ancient aeromodeller, competitors for these high flying skill contests are getting younger and younger, Duncan Osbourn became World Champion at 17, Luke shaw is 18 and Martin Bell must be feeling his age at 22! Flying standards were extremely high, there was only one accident, Thomas David was a little over optimistic in his pull-put (I know the feeling!). When Terry Westrop first thought about a freestyle aerobatic competition in 1978, after watching a full-size competition, he could little have imagined the extreme manoeuvres performed by today’s models. Thank goodness he did not allow his dream to fade away and die, otherwise we would be left with the F3A competitions which, having been a reluctant observer as a magazine editor, are as exciting as watching the proverbial paint dry. The present freestyle contests are like a breath of fresh air.

Congratulations to all of those members involved in the organising and support of the event, ‘it were a right good do’. Thanks also go to the Association for allowing the use of the site, Dave Howell and Dennis Fenn for it’s upkeep, to the sponsors, including RCM&E, Freestyle RC, YT International, Prosonic, Probuild, J. Perkins and Weston UK, to the St Johns Ambulance, RCM&E & 3D Masters for raffle prizes, Luke Sheehan for the commentary, Paul Clarke & Lee Waples for organising and working the RC forums, the judges Pete Brett, Bob Ailles, Ali Machinchy, Dave Stephens, to the webmaster John Mee, and scorer Martin Smith and of course Terry Westrop himself.